Wounded warriors take on new challenges

“Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can,” reads a sign posted at the John Wooden Recreation Center, quoting UCLA’s legendary basketball coach. For some 70 injured soldiers who visited the center on Oct. 20, that can-do attitude came into play in having fun: scaling the rock wall and playing wheelchair sports in an event hosted by UCLA’s Adaptive Recreation Program and the campus Veterans Resource Office (VRO), with assistance from the campus's Army ROTC.

 

Dressed in fatigues, the soldiers were represented by an organization called Wounded Warriors and temporarily assigned to an army unit to recover from injuries that range from damaged limbs to post-traumatic stress disorder. Many of these injuries were sustained while they served in Afghanistan or Iraq.

 

“Challenge yourself,” Jamie Hoffman, director of adaptive recreation, told participants. Think “challenge by choice,” she encouraged. “Do as much as you can, as much as you want to — and step back if you need to.”

 

With coaching from members of an L.A. Lakers-sponsored wheelchair basketball team, dozens of injured soldiers climbed into wheelchairs specially designed for basketball and raucously rolled up, down and around Collins Court.

 

Watching from the sidelines, Tina Oakland, director of the Bruin Resource Center which includes the VRO, noted, “They’re all making sure everybody gets a turn and everybody's having a good time. This is a different way to see each other, an opportunity to be a team of a different kind.”

 

Sgt. First Class Alex Ortiz, whose wrist ligaments were torn and nerves damaged while recently serving in Kosovo, took a turn at table tennis. “Just getting out is fun,” he said. “It gives you a feeling of normalcy, away from the military life for awhile.”

 

Said Hoffman, “An event like this is important to remind them that they need to be active to improve their quality of life, health and wellness. During physical therapy they might be told they can’t do this thing or that. But they can. Hopefully this opens their eyes to new possibilities.”